HUD gives free housing to 201,000 unqualified tenants, audit finds

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development provided free housing for 201,000 people that did not meet the department’s scant community-service requirements to qualify for housing benefits.

A new audit report conducted by HUD’s Office of Inspector General found that the department spent more than $37 million in monthly taxpayer subsidies, extending or renewing leases for nearly 106,000 houses with unqualified tenants.

Auditors estimate that if HUD does not strengthen its controls, the department will waste $448 million on housing for non compliant tenants over the next year.

According to HUD’s own data, there are over 610,000 homeless people currently living in the United States, and 65 percent of those people are living in emergency shelters. But the latest audit report reveals a culture of entitlement gone wrong, where unqualified adults take advantage of government benefits that could be otherwise given to needier tenants.

“It’s outrageous that the government is spending half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds to give free rent to 100,000 households that can pay their own way,” said Ryan Ellis, tax policy director of Americans for Tax Reform. “There’s a hand up, and there’s a slap in the face. This is the latter.”

Critics say it’s not only taxpayers who should be outraged by the latest HUD audit, which covers operations from July 2012 through June 2014, but so too should low-income families in need of housing assistance.